Una “buona morte”?
Perspective
A Good Death?
List of authors.
“I’ve lived with this for 10 years. I’m hoping for another 2, to make it to my 85th birthday so I can have a big party.”
My patient’s voice was weak, but his goals were clear. He had been transferred to our inpatient palliative care unit overnight for end-of-life care. Having just come on as the attending physician, I was meeting him for the first time.
“Do you ever think about what you might do if time were shorter than you hope?” I asked him.
He looked around the room at the family gathered around his bedside. “We’d all just tell a white lie and pretend I made it. We’d have the party early.”
I left the room relieved and optimistic. We would plan to adjust his medications to control his symptoms and help his family plan one last birthday celebration, complete with cake and perhaps wine (we’d turn a blind eye to hospital policy). My patient would have a “good death,” one of the outcomes that inspired me to choose a career in palliative care. …
